Accelerated Dragon, Maróczy Bind

The Maróczy Bind, named after the Hungarian grandmaster Géza Maróczy, meets the Accelerated Dragon with 5. c4. The c- and e-pawns together control d5, so the ...d5 break that the delayed d-pawn was meant to make cheap becomes very hard to achieve. Black usually settles for ...d6, sometimes with a Hedgehog-type formation, and looks for counterplay with ...b5 or ...f5. The same structure can arise from the English Opening and the King's Indian Defense. The earliest known example is Swiderski–Maróczy, Monte Carlo 1904, although Maróczy never adopted it as White. Writers of the 1940s such as Golombek and Fine treated allowing the Bind as a positional mistake, but from the 1950s Black found better methods, and the prevailing view is that White keeps a space advantage while Black's position is fundamentally sound.

5...Bg7 is by far the most common reply. After 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 the Breyer Variation, 7...Ng4, hits the e3-bishop and seeks exchanges to relieve the cramp. 5...Nf6 is less frequent but scores better for Black, and leads to the Gurgenidze Variation, 6. Nc3 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 d6. The line is heavily analyzed; the engine gives White a slight edge, while results in practice are fairly close.